Journey Walk results

Every 15 laps equals 1 mile and we had about 40 minutes to do this. Kate pounded out 47 laps and would have been able to hit a few more if not for the fact that a good portion of the parents and younger kids walked so slowly as to clog up the track a bit. Ben also went the same 47 laps, though he was little more than ballast strapped on to Sherri

Drew made it 35 laps with me. I had figured 30 laps was a wildly optimistic target. I think he could have had a few more, but the arrival of the Chick-Fil-A cow (Drew considers him completely evil) managed to wreck our pace a few times.

So, between the two of them, I think they managed to raise $61 for the Indonesia mission trip.

Drew's letters

By looking at their journey bags, Drew was able to correctly identify the 4 letters of his name and Kate's. I think he might have read the word STOP off of a sign while driving to church, but not totally aure on that.

Journey walk tonight. 45 lap max which Kate is sure she will make. I think Drew and I will be moving a good bit slower.

Yay Marlins! Boo 4 AM wakeups! Boo croup!

Kate had her first t-ball game of the season last night. Hit well, fielded well, we just need to work on her directional throwing, but that'll come with time. Drew and Ben happily watched with Gram. Went to Moe's afterwards to eat and Shari/Andrew were going also so we had a big old party there.

Kate then woke up at 4 AM (this after Ben's 4 AM shenanigans the night before) with wheeziness, coughing, etc so that was really awesome for our tiredness. Turns out she has croup, which sounds a bit like a 1700's pirate disease to me. 3 days of meds and breathing treatments, but otherwise no big deal.

This weekend

Was a normal weekend by all measures. It appears Kate's new obsession is the concept of having a sleepover. I think this idea mainly got started when we were hanging with the Niemann's and she and Andrew got talking about it. The whole boy/girl thing pretty much puts the kibosh on that happening, so it appears she may have now set her targets on having a sleepover with Katie. We'll see.

Drew is probably up to recognizing about half of the alphabet now.

Ben probably set a record for longest time he let a non-relative hold him, with a good 10 minutes with Barbara Riley. The best part was him spitting up all over Sherri about 5 seconds after she took him back. Good timing Ben, kudos!

Drew and letters

Pulling up to Stevi B's Pizza to eat lunch Sunday

Drew: Stevi B's! I see a B up there.
Sherri: Where?
Drew: Next to the S.

So, he's starting to figure out letters.

Outside time

Spent the last two nights over at the Niemann's. Kids playing outside, with Drew essentially tagging along behind Kate and Andrew wherever they went. Watching it, I can pretty easily see how not fun it can be to be the bigger kid with a younger one wanting to horn in on everything and how not fun it can be to be the younger one trying to be cool like the bigger kids.

Also, I was a little worried at one point when I head Kate and Andrew discussing boyfriends and girlfriends. Turns out it was in the context off friends who are boys and friends who are girls. So, I can live with that.

Bonus, no bloody nose for Drew this evening.

Thank you Richard James Phelan

Drew, this AM at breakfast: I have to go potty outside.

Ensuing lesson on pottying and indoor bathroom availability

Woohoo!

Drew made it through the night without a diaper or an accident. I think we are now officially down to one child with diapers which is all kinds of awesome.

Kate has a growing horse obsession, along with an ever growing daredevil streak.

Ben is cute. His teeth are looking good.

Spring Flowers

Planted by Kate and Drew at Gram and PopHank's house

Drew, looking awesome at McDonald's

Drew

Ben is too cool

Kate's future, Drew's apparent turkey obsession

Kate with me at the vet today
I was thinking I could be a veterinarian. I could be a doctor. I could be a veterinarion. I could be a doctor. But I really think I should be a veterinarion. I wanted to choose now so I don't have to think about deciding later.

Earlier in our kitchen:
Sherri: Drew, do you want a piece of cookie?
Drew, from across the house: OK.
He comes wandering in to the kitchen
Sherri: Here you go
Drew: That's not turkey
Sherri: No, I said cookie
Drew: No, I wanted turkey
Goes stomping off

Running with Scissors

Well, something safer than that.  Drew got to use scissors for the first time ever.  Controlled environment, directed by Sherri.  But, he did well which is little surprise since he seems unusually gifted when it comes to the mechanics of making things work.

Best Drew moment ever

This is a test

Solely to see if I really can post from an email. Move along, nothing to see here.

Blah

Well, it is a rainy day which is good because it knocks the pollen out of the air. It is bad because it precludes walking/outside play. Kate got her $1 from the tooth fairy. She was far more concerned about being unable to find her tooth when she lost it yesterday than about the nice flow of blood down her face from the now gaping hole at the bottom of her smile. We assured her a note to the tooth fairy would suffice. She did a good job spelling words she probably has no business knowing how to spell yet.

Drew seems mostly over the sickness. Unfortunately, we now know far too much about just how much volume his stomach can hold. Awesome.

Ben? Probably riding the sick train a bit.

Sherri? Definitely on the sick train, at least around 2 AM so that was awesome for her.

Chris? A-OK so far.

Ben - Currently smiling at me from the comforts of his exersaucer.

Kate - Lost yet another tooth today. I think it was loose anyway, but she did help coax it out a bit with some poor hand-eye coordination while playing.

Drew - At lunch prayed to God that he would get to eat a tootsie roll. Just finished a nice round of throwing up so I guess he picked up what Kate had a couple of days ago. Egg salad, less attractive the second time around. Good times.

The Beginning

I'll be honest, should have started this long ago. Sherri and I have intermittently kept up journal stuff about Kate since she was born and folded in Drew and Ben as they came along but, like most parents, really busy lives means there are probably some cute, funny, eventful, or somewhat horrifying stories now lost to the mists of time. Oh well, we'll just have to catalog them from here on out. I assume this blog may help. A little more immediate, a little more centrally located. And as long as the vast series of tubes, bells, whistles, and wires that make up the internet keeps working we should have a long lasting record of Phelan kid activity.

I won't bother too much with setting up who we are. If you are reading this, then you probably already know us pretty well. If you don't know us pretty well, then wait for a few dozen more posts and you'll have us pegged soon. My goal is not to document the kids lives to the utmost, that would probably be unhealthy. Plus, you'd get tired of reading about their awesomeness and my bias. Just fairly big events, stories most people would consider cute/funny, and probably some other random stuff here and there. Heavy on the light stuff, light on the heavy stuff as it were.

Events to note:
Kate
Lost her first tooth on 4/1/10. Got her $1 from the Tooth Fairy (the economic times are tough even for fairies). She woke up in the middle of the night freaked out she swallowed another one but all was good.

Drew
Continued success away from diapers. Superhero underwear is a potent motivational tool.

Ben
Tooth #1 makes an appearance. Let the biting begin.